Shulgin is a member of the State Duma. Monarchists in the USSR (2). legal monarchist. Wars and revolutions

19.01.2011 - 11:49

This man amazed those around him. Monarchist, ideologist and inspirer of the White Guard movement, who later "found" the advantages in the Soviet system, who kept him in prison for a long time and destroyed his family. Who was he - the famous Vasily Shulgin, a politician who claimed: "I have been involved in politics all my life and hated it all my life"?

Deputy of the State Duma

This amazing person was born on January 1 (13), 1878 in Kyiv. His father is a professor of world history at Kiev University, editor of the liberal newspaper Kievlyanin. He died in the year his son was born, and Vasily was raised by his stepfather, a patriot and monarchist professor-economist D. I. Pikhno, who also became the editor of Kievlyanin.

After graduating from high school, Shulgin studied at the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University. Then, for the first time, some strange split in his consciousness was revealed - Shulgin opposes Jewish pogroms, but positions himself as an anti-Semite. In 1900 he became a leading journalist, and later the editor-in-chief of Kievlyanin.

During the Russo-Japanese War, Shulgin was drafted into the army with the rank of ensign of the reserve field engineering troops and served in the 14th sapper battalion, but did not participate in hostilities at that time.

In 1907, Shulgin began to seriously engage in politics - he became a deputy of the State Duma from the Volyn province, a member of the monarchist faction of nationalists.

Nicholas II received him several times. Shulgin then supported Stolypin's actions, supporting not only his famous reforms, but also measures to suppress the revolutionary movement. In 1913, Shulgin spoke in a newspaper with sharp criticism of the actions of the government. For this article, he was sentenced to 3 months in prison "for spreading deliberately false information about senior officials in the press", and the newspaper issue was confiscated. Those copies that have already sold out were resold for 10 rubles.

Wars and revolutions

When did the first World War, Shulgin volunteered for the front, participated in the battles, was wounded, and then led the zemstvo advanced dressing and feeding detachment. Later, he was actively involved in politics, sat in the Duma, left the nationalist faction and created the Progressive Party of Nationalists.

Then the February revolution, in the thick of which Shulgin is brewing - on February 27, 1917, he was elected to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma. It was he, together with Guchkov, who accepted the abdication of Nicholas II ...

After the revolution, Shulgin creates a secret organization "Azbuka" under Denikin's army - an intelligence department. All her agents had underground nicknames - the letters of the alphabet. The main task of this organization was to collect and analyze information about the internal and external situation of Russia. The department had agents in many cities of Russia and around the world.

In November 1917, Shulgin met with General M.V. Alekseev and took part in the formation of the Volunteer Army. At the same time, he edited the newspaper " Great Russia”, in which he promoted the white idea. But later, seeing the disintegration of the white movement, Shulgin wrote: "The white cause began almost as saints, and it was almost finished by robbers."

In 1920 Shulgin lived in Odessa. The white army, the intelligentsia, the bourgeoisie left the country in a panic. After the entry of the Red Army into the Crimea, Shulgin, having lost his three sons and his wife, emigrated.

On the ship, Shulgin met the daughter of General D.M. Sidelnikova Maria Dmitrievna, who was almost half his age - and love began, which was destined to endure a lot of suffering. Abroad, Shulgin found his first wife and obtained her consent to a divorce. The fate of the first wife ended tragically - she committed suicide. The loss of both family and country at once was not in vain for her ...

Shulgin settled in Yugoslavia and actively participated in the counter-revolutionary movement. He contacted the leadership of the underground anti-Soviet organization "Trust" and in 1925 illegally visited the USSR.

Shulgin outlined his impressions of the trip to the USSR in the book "Three Capitals" - with a detailed description of what he saw in the USSR. After it turned out in the USSR that Shulgin managed to penetrate iron curtain, all his movements and meetings took place under the control of the OGPU.

When Hitler attacked Russia, Shulgin, who had previously welcomed the ideas of the nationalists, still managed to see the threat to the country. He did not fight the Nazis, but he did not serve them either. This saved him from the deadly punishing hand of the Soviets, but did not save him from prison.

Vladimir Central - a stage from Yugoslavia

In 1944, Shulgin received a postcard from the Soviet embassy - with a request to come in "in order to streamline some formalities." Shulgin went to the embassy - and was arrested. After the initial interrogation, Shulgin was taken to Moscow.

After being charged and conducting an investigation that lasted more than two years, Shulgin was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Shulgin served his term in the famous Vladimir prison. Among his cellmates were writer and philosopher D.L. Andreev - son of Leonid Andreev, Prince P.D. Dolgorukov, Academician V. Parin.

After the 20th Congress of the CPSU, Shulgin was released. At first he lived in a nursing home, and then he was allowed to live with his wife - but the housing issue, as usual, was not resolved. Then Shulgin, already a very elderly and sick man, resolutely goes on a hunger strike, and soon they are given their own corner, and then a one-room apartment.

By the way, Shulgin, over the years of ordeals in the USSR, acquired some practicality, which could hardly be expected from a thinker and hereditary spoiled intellectual in other conditions. So, he issued half of the pension for his wife, so that in the event of his death she would not be left without a livelihood. But the wife, although much younger, died earlier.

Eyewitnesses of Shulgin's life in Vladimir said that when his wife died, he settled in a village near the cemetery and lived there until the 40th day - he said goodbye to the one who had loved him for so many years ... When the monarchist returned to the city, it turned out that " well-wishers, who took care of him, stole some of his wife’s golden things - the only thing left with the old man.

Age Man

Many famous people were interested in Shulgin - still, a person who was a direct participant in the fateful events of the 20th century. Writers, screenwriters, directors came to him - as to a living witness of History. Shulgin gave advice to the writer Lev Nikulin, who wrote the book Dead Swell. Later, the famous film “Operation Trust” was filmed on it. Shulgin starred in the feature film “Before the Court of History”, playing himself ...

In 1961, in the book Letters to Russian Emigrants, published in a hundred thousand copies, Shulgin admitted that what the communists do is absolutely necessary for the people and salutary for all mankind. Subsequently, Shulgin said about this work of his: "I was deceived" - before that, he traveled around the country, and he was shown "the achievements of Soviet power."

But even the praise of the authorities did not help Shulgin when his son Dmitry, who lives in the USA, was found. Shulgin asked the authorities for a trip, but he was refused - under the pretext ... of the approaching anniversary of the October Revolution. Shulgin was indignant: “After I wrote favorably for the Soviets, I cannot go abroad. Why? Because wherever I go now, they will lock me up in the "dungeon". For what? Then, so that I would write there that I was forced by force to write favorable about the Soviets "... Shulgin remained completely alone and died in 1976 - at the 99th year of his life.

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In the early seventies, strange rumors roamed around Vladimir: they say that a monarchist lives in the city, who at the very king Nicholas II he accepted the abdication, and shook hands with all the White Guard generals.

Such conversations seemed like sheer madness: what kind of monarchist is there half a century after the October Revolution, after the country celebrated the centenary of the birth with noise Lenin?!

The most amazing thing is that it was the truth. In the midst of Russian antiquities and Soviet buildings, not just a witness lived out his life, but a major figure from the time of the revolution and civil war. Moreover, this figure put his whole life on the altar of the fight against the Bolsheviks.

Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin- an amazing person. It is difficult to say what was more in him: the prudence of a politician or the adventurism of Ostap Bender. We can say for sure that his life was like an adventure novel, sometimes turning into a thriller.

Dmitry Ivanovich Pikhno, Shulgin's stepfather. Source: Public Domain

“I became an anti-Semite in my last year of university”

He was born in Kyiv on January 13, 1878. His father was a historian Vitaly Shulgin who died when his son was not even a year old. Then Vasya's mother also passed away: his stepfather took custody of the boy, economist Dmitry Pikhno.

Shulgin studied mediocrely, was a C student, but after the gymnasium he entered the Kiev Imperial University of St. Vladimir to study law at the Faculty of Law. The connections of the stepfather and noble origin helped.

Pikhno was a staunch monarchist and nationalist and passed on similar beliefs to his stepson. In student circles, on the contrary, revolutionary moods reigned: Shulgin at the university was a "black sheep".

“I became an anti-Semite in my last year of university. And on the same day, and for the same reasons, I became “right”, “conservative”, “nationalist”, “white”, well, in a word, what I am now, ”Shulgin said about himself in adulthood.

By the beginning of the first Russian revolution, Shulgin was an accomplished family man, had his own business, and in 1905 he began to actively publish his articles in the Kievlyanin newspaper, which was once headed by his father, and at that time his stepfather Dmitry Pikhno.

The best speaker of the State Duma

Shulgin joined the organization "Union of the Russian People", and then joined the "Russian People's Union named after Michael the Archangel", which was headed by the most famous Black Hundreds Vladimir Purishkevich.

However, Purishkevich's radicalism was still not close to him. Having been elected to the State Duma, Shulgin moved to more moderate positions. Initially an opponent of parliamentarism, over time he not only began to consider popular representation necessary, but he himself became one of the most prominent speakers in the State Duma.

Shulgin's atypicality as a Black Hundred manifested itself during the scandalous case of Beilis, connected with accusations of Jews in the ritual murders of Christian children. Shulgin from the pages of "Kievlyanin" directly accused the authorities of fabricating the case, which is why he almost ended up in prison.

With the outbreak of the First World War, he volunteered for the front, was seriously wounded near Przemysl, and after that he was in charge of the front-line nutrition and dressing station. From the front to Petrograd, he went to meetings of the State Duma.

Witness of renunciation

Having met February 1917 in the strange role of a liberal monarchist dissatisfied with the policies of Nicholas II, Shulgin was a categorical opponent of the revolution. Even more: according to Shulgin, "the revolution causes a desire to take up machine guns."

But in the very first days of unrest in Petrograd, he begins to act, as if guided by the principle "if you want to prevent, lead." For example, Shulgin, with his fiery speeches, ensured the transition of the garrison of the Peter and Paul Fortress to the side of the revolutionaries.

He was included in the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, which, in fact, was the headquarters of the February Revolution. In this capacity, together with Alexander Guchkov he was sent to Pskov, where he received an act of renunciation from the hands of Nicholas II. This monarchists could not forgive Shulgin until the end of his life.

Shulgin with an employee during his visit to Nicholas II for abdication. Pskov, March 1917 Source: Public Domain

Enemy of Ukrainian nationalism

The revolutionary wave, however, soon pushed him to the periphery, and he left for Kyiv, where there was even greater chaos. Here the factor of Ukrainian nationalists came into play, with whom Shulgin tried to fight with all his might, protesting against the plans of "Ukrainization".

Shulgin was involved in an attempted rebellion General Kornilov and was even arrested after his failure, but he was quickly released.

After the October Revolution, Shulgin went to Novocherkassk, where the first White Guard units were being formed. But general Alekseev, who dealt with this issue, asked Shulgin to return to Kyiv and start publishing the newspaper again, considering him more useful as a propagandist.

Power in Kyiv passed from hand to hand. Shulgin, arrested by the Bolsheviks, was released by them during the retreat. Apparently, knowing his views, the Reds decided not to leave Shulgin to be punished by Ukrainian nationalists.

When German troops occupied Kiev in February 1918, Shulgin closed his newspaper, writing in the last issue: “Since we did not invite the Germans, we do not want to enjoy the benefits of relative calm and some political freedom that the Germans brought us. We have no right to do this... We are your enemies. We may be your prisoners of war, but we will not be your friends as long as the war is on.”

Brief triumph followed by flight

French and British agents appreciated Shulgin's impulse and offered him cooperation. Thanks to their help, Shulgin began to create an extensive intelligence network, called the ABC, which made it possible to collect information, including on the territory occupied by the Bolsheviks.

He made enemies very quickly. The monarchists could not forgive him for going to Pskov, for the Bolsheviks he was an ideological opponent, and Hetman Skoropadsky and even declared him a "personal enemy."

Having got out of Kyiv, he reached Ekaterinodar, occupied by the Whites, where he published the newspaper Rossiya. Then in Odessa, he acted as a representative of the Volunteer Army, from where he was forced to leave after a quarrel with the French occupation authorities.

In the summer of 1919, the Whites took Kyiv: Shulgin returned home in triumph, resuming the production of his Kievan. The triumph was, however, short-lived: in December 1919, the Red Army entered the city and Shulgin barely managed to get out at the last moment.

He moved to Odessa, where he tried to rally the anti-Bolshevik forces around him, but as good as Shulgin was as an orator, he was just as unimportant as an organizer. The underground organization created by him after the occupation of Odessa by the Reds was uncovered, and the former State Duma deputy again had to flee.

Portrait of V.V. Shulgin in exile, 1934. Source: Public Domain

In the web of "Trust"

After the final defeat of the Whites in the Civil War, he moved to Constantinople. Shulgin lost many loved ones, including his two eldest sons. One of them died, and he did not know anything about the fate of the second for several decades. Only in the sixties Shulgin became aware that Benjamin, whose family name was Lyalya, died in the USSR in a psychiatric hospital in the mid-twenties.

In the early years of emigration, Shulgin wrote many journalistic works, advocated the continuation of the struggle, and collaborated with the Russian All-Military Union (ROVS). On his instructions, he illegally went to the USSR, where an organization was operating that was preparing an anti-Bolshevik coup. After returning, Shulgin wrote the book "Three Capitals", in which he described the USSR during the heyday of the NEP.

The book turned out to be too complimentary to Soviet reality, which many in exile did not like. And then a scandal erupted: it turned out that the underground organization in the USSR was part of the operation of the Soviet special services, code-named "Trust" and Shulgin spent the entire trip under the close tutelage of the GPU.

Shulgin was shocked: until the end of his life he did not believe that he had fallen for the bait of the Chekists. Nevertheless, he retired from active work in exile after the scandal with the Trust.

25 years instead of the gallows

In the thirties, Vasily Vitalievich looked into the abyss: he was among those Russian emigrants who welcomed the arrival Hitler to power and at first saw it as a way to liberate Russia from the Bolsheviks. Fortunately for himself, Shulgin managed to recoil in time, otherwise his story, most likely, would have ended in the same way as the story generals Krasnov And Shkuro: having sworn allegiance to Hitler, they were eventually hanged in Lefortovo prison in 1947.

Shulgin, who lived in Yugoslavia, after its liberation from German occupation, was detained and sent to Moscow. An active member of the White Guard organization "Russian All-Military Union" in the summer of 1947 was sentenced to 25 years in prison.

He later recalled that, of course, he expected punishment, but not so severe, hoping that, given his age and the fact that a lot of time had passed since his active work, they would give him three years.

Shulgin sat in the Vladimir Central along with the German and Japanese generals, the Bolsheviks who fell into disgrace and other prominent people.

Shulgin's photo from the materials of the investigation file.

Shulgin Vasily Vitalievich - (January 13, 1878 - February 15, 1976) - Russian nationalist and publicist. Member of the second, third and fourth State Duma, monarchist and member of the White movement.

Shulgin was born in Kyiv in the family of historian Vitaly Shulgin. Vasily's father died a month before his birth, and the boy was raised by his stepfather, scientist-economist Dmitry Pikhno, editor of the monarchist newspaper Kievlyanin (replaced V. Ya. Shulgin in this position), later - a member State Council. Shulgin studied law at Kiev University. A negative attitude towards the revolution was formed in him at the university, when he constantly became an eyewitness to the riots organized by revolutionary-minded students. Shulgin's stepfather got him a job at his newspaper. Shulgin promoted anti-Semitism in his publications. Due to tactical considerations, Shulgin criticized the Beilis case, since it was obvious that this odious process played into the hands of only the opponents of the monarchy. This was the reason for criticism of Shulgin by some radical nationalists, in particular, M. O. Menshikov called him a "Jewish Janissary" in his article "Little Zola"

In 1907, Shulgin became a member of the State Duma and the leader of the nationalist faction in the IV Duma. He advocated far-right views, supported the Stolypin government, including the introduction of courts-martial and other controversial reforms. With the outbreak of World War I, Shulgin went to the front, but in 1915 he was wounded and returned. On February 27, 1917, the Council of Elders of the Duma V.V. Shulgin was elected to the Provisional Committee of the State Duma, which took over the functions of the government. The Provisional Committee decided that Emperor Nicholas II should immediately abdicate in favor of his son Alexei under the regency of his brother, Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich.

On March 2, the Provisional Committee sent V.V. to the tsar in Pskov for negotiations. Shulgin and A.I. Guchkov. But Nicholas II signed the Act of Abdication in favor of the brother of the Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich. 03 March V.V. Shulgin took part in negotiations with Grand Duke Mikhail Alexandrovich, as a result of which he refused to accept the throne until the decision of the Constituent Assembly. April 26, 1917 V.V. Shulgin admitted: "I can't say that the entire Duma wanted a revolution entirely; all this would be untrue .... But, even without wanting it, we created a revolution."

V.V. Shulgin strongly supported the Provisional Government, but, seeing its inability to restore order in the country, in early October 1917 he moved to Kyiv. There he headed the "Russian National Union".

After the October Revolution, V.V. Shulgin created the underground organization "Azbuka" in Kyiv in order to fight against Bolshevism. In November-December 1917 he went to the Don to Novocherkassk, participated in the creation of the White Volunteer Army. From the end of 1918 he edited the newspaper "Russia", then "Great Russia", praising the monarchist and nationalist principles and the purity of the "white idea". When the hope of anti-Bolshevik forces coming to power was lost, Shulgin first moved to Kyiv, where he took part in the activities of the White Guard organizations (“Azbuka”), and later emigrated to Yugoslavia.

In 1925-26. he secretly visited the Soviet Union, describing his impressions of the NEP in the book Three Capitals. In exile, Shulgin maintained contacts with other leaders of the White movement until 1937, when he finally ceased political activity. In 1925-1926. illegally arrived in Russia, visited Kyiv, Moscow, Leningrad. He described his visit to the USSR in the book "Three Capitals", summed up his impressions with the words: "When I went there, I did not have a homeland. Now I have it." From the 30s. lived in Yugoslavia.

In 1937 he retired from political activity. When in 1944 Soviet troops entered the territory of Yugoslavia, V.V. Shulgin was arrested and taken to Moscow. For "hostile to communism and anti-Soviet activities" he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He served his term in the Vladimir prison, worked on his memoirs. After the death of I.V. Stalin, during the period of a broad amnesty for political prisoners in 1956, he was released and settled in Vladimir.

In the 1960s urged the emigration to abandon hostility towards the USSR. In 1965, he starred in the documentary "Before the Judgment of History": V.V. Shulgin, sitting in the Catherine Hall of the Tauride Palace, where the State Duma met, answered the questions of the historian.

Vasily Shulgin was not a simple participant in the revolution. It was he, a deputy of three State Dumas and a desperate monarchist, paradoxically, who accepted the abdication of Nicholas II, and later became one of the organizers and ideologists of the White movement. All the more valuable is the unknown evidence of Shulgin found in the archive, in which he tries to explain the causes of the Russian revolution and the Civil War. Perhaps this rare testimony will bring us a little closer to understanding the tragic events of the revolutionary era, the centenary of which is not far off.

Valery Levitsky and Vasily Shulgin

In the richest collection of memoirs of emigrants from the "Prague Collection" of the State Archives Russian Federation the memoirs of the cadet Valery Mikhailovich Levitsky (1886-1946) were deposited. Levitsky was one of the people who did not actively accept the revolution and participated in the White movement. Most of all, he showed himself in the field of journalism, actively collaborating with the most prominent figure in the white camp, Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin (1878-1976) 1 . Levitsky published in the Yekaterinodar newspaper Rossiya, which was edited by Shulgin; in the Odessa newspaper - with the same name, which became the actual legal successor of the Yekaterinodar edition; was the editor of "Great Russia", which, in turn, was published in Yekaterinodar and Rostov-on-Don. Levitsky was not a figure in the first rank of the so-called "Russian public" - he was not a personality like Shulgin or Milyukov; at the same time, Levitsky worked in Shulgin's "team" and was quite politically close to him. That is why Vasily Vitalievich considered it possible to preface Valery Mikhailovich's memoirs, which were never published in full, and called "The Struggle in the South" 2 , with a brief preface published on the pages of our journal.

"Unanswered" questions

In this text, Shulgin made an attempt to explain the origin of the Russian revolution, the Civil War and the defeat of the White movement in it, which echoes the diary of V.V. Shulgin for February 1918 3 All his life Shulgin tried to give himself an answer to these "unanswerable" questions: why did the revolution happen? Was autocracy doomed? Why did the Reds win the Civil War and not the Whites? Were whites the moral winners in this war? It seems to us that Shulgin came closer to answering these questions than other thinkers of his time.

Emphasized romanticism, characteristic of Shulgin, was also manifested in his views on the White movement. Shulgin himself described his concept of the White movement as a "monarchist utopia", noting that the main premise of the White cause is "obedience to the leader", noting that "his (the leader. - A.P.) conscience decides what can and should be, and what no. The rest obey" 4 . Just with this "obedience," Shulgin believed, at the decisive moment, everything turned out to be unimportant. In particular, Shulgin, who had an exceptional literary talent, argued that Denikin's army lost because the whites "did not remain at the height of whiteness ... (the lines belong to V.V. Shulgin. - A.P.) But this could not be ... After all, if we were white by nature, no revolution would have occurred. Power is not torn out of truly white hands ... We were not white in essence, and therefore a revolution took place. But when it happened, we, being gray and dirty, yet rushed to the defense of the white banner raised by a few Russians, whom Russia may not be ashamed of... Sinners, we went after the saints... Cowards, we went after the heroes Low in soul, we went after the ideal of the White struggle. although we often soiled the white banner with our dirty hands, nevertheless we held it over Russia as much as we could, not sparing our belly and abundantly watering its foot, albeit sinful, but still with our own blood. That is, according to Shulgin, the reason for the defeat is the "Greys" and "Dirty", which, "alas, not a small number clung to the White Army" 6 .

The first, as Vasily Vitalievich pointed out, "hid and messed around, the second stole, robbed and killed not in the name of a heavy duty, but actually for the sake of a sadistic, perverted dirty-bloody pleasure..." 7 . The "Greys" and "Dirty" lose honor and morality, which means that the Whites lose, because, according to Shulgin, "a white cause cannot be won if honor and morality are lost" 8 .

The Whites, as Shulgin wrote in the days of the collapse of Denikin's front, hated the Russian people, "armed the Red Army" and, in fact, adopting the Bolshevik slogan "Rob the loot!" in relation to their own compatriots, thereby "give Lenin a hand across the front" 9 . The army was tired of hardships and wished to receive trophies from the "grateful population": "The microbe of self-will captured the entire army. It woke up, as you know, only in the Crimea, having lost all its conquests," V.V. Shulgin in one of his articles 10 .

Volunteers, villains and non-volunteers

Volunteers, according to Shulgin, began to turn into Zlovoltsev: “Next to the withering lily of goodwill, a violent tide of Evil-will bloomed. The evil-volunteers quickly figured out the secret of Denikin’s kingdom - the kingdom of “dictatorship in words”, the absence of that iron will, in front of which the Good ones stand in joyful formation and in front of which "The Evil Ones bow down, gritting their teeth. The Evil Ones perfectly understood that one can indulge in one's nature with impunity. As for the third element - the large layer lying between the volunteers and the Evil Ones - namely Bezvoltsev, then a wonderful excuse was found for them: since the authorities do not care about us ", then we have the right to take care of ourselves. Since Denikin does not give, we must take it ourselves. As soon as this word was uttered: "to take it ourselves", everything rolled down an inclined plane. This plane is characterized by two truths; one Russian: "the soul knows the measure ", and another French: "appetite comes with eating" ... And off we go. The evil-doers were "tricky", The evil-doers stole, The evil-doers robbed, The evil-doers killed, and the population, looking at all this, sadly raised its hands to the sky: here you are Volunteers! It did not know that there were actually no more volunteers, but a poorly disciplined army of ordinary Russian people, whose “hillock of property” had never been distinguished by excessive development.

Whites have ceased to be white, and this is the reason for their defeat. In addition, the counter-revolution, as Shulgin believed, was unable to put forward a single new name either in the field of military or in the field of civil administration: "there are no new people, but there are few old ones, and they lost heart" 12.

Already in exile, Shulgin wrote, detailing the previous statement: “This was our tragedy. After all, the revolution happened precisely because the human Stoff (material - German - A.P.), which made up the state fabric, could not stand it and burst. And now from these scraps, from shreds of unsustainable material, it was necessary to rebuild the Russian state. If only there was confidence that Stoff's scraps improved during the revolution in terms of quality factor. But no. In the mass they rather worsened. Although they have grown wiser politically, but morally even more loosened up" 13 . At the same time, Shulgin noted: “Yes, our path seemed glorious then ... After a short time, it became only a “godfather”, difficult, but fame flew away. All the same ... Great years will pass, and glory will return ... Because with all our shortcomings, we nevertheless turned out to be from that damask that could not be led to the slaughter by "live cattle": we did not go, we took up rifles and gave a "fight" ... We were defeated, but we defended our right to be called people ... This is our glory, and our descendants will give it to us" 14 .

Levitsky, sending his manuscript to the Prague archive, dated "The Struggle in the South" to 1923, however, under the preface of V.V. Shulgin set a different date - October 15, 1922, Prague. Title provided by the publisher.

V.V. Shulgin Preface

The so-called "Struggle in the South", in other words, the tragedy associated with the names of Alekseev, Kornilov, Denikin and Wrangel, still has [neither] its external historian, nor its external interpretation, neither Homer nor Sophocles. The time has not yet come to cover this grandiose process with a general and true picture, in which the main thing will be in the first place, the details in their own place, and the author of the historian from the mink of an eyewitness, who knows only his part well, will rise to a height from which the whole panorama will unfold. Now we are still in the zone of personal experiences. It cannot be otherwise, and there is nothing to be embarrassed about. After all, in order to integrate, you must first write a differentiated equation. We, those who were, in one form or another, participants in the South Russian struggle, can write a differentiated equation, i.e., write down the process in infinitesimal terms, and the integral, i.e., the chapter, will depend on this, how correctly we write it. Russian revolution, called the white movement, represented not in its elements, but in all its value. At the same time, we must also remember that our quite natural, but premature attempts at generalizations, i.e. integration now, it is necessary to consider only as elements. After all, these attempts are a condensation of the views of the participants in the events on what is happening. These views may or may not be correct, but, in any case, they were real forces that influenced the development of events to one degree or another. To refrain entirely from generalizations would be to hide the reasons why people acted differently.

The true culprit of our tragedy was philistine indifference, frivolity and immorality. The Russian philistine, for whose salvation the struggle was essentially going on, at first believed that he would be best saved if he sat quietly and peacefully. Therefore, at the beginning, when the Volunteer Army was really volunteer, he supplied volunteers in an insignificant amount for Russia. When the army of General Denikin switched to a system of mobilizations, the mobilized philistine took revenge by revealing his true, far from white nature ... Philistine filled the troops and administration. She poured her usual qualities into the White movement: neurotic irritability, inconstancy, extravagance, an irresistible need for slander and spitefulness, and a complete lack of respect for other people's property. It was that same Russian philistine or public that had sympathetically watched for so many years how politicians of various stripes taught the peasant how to rob the landowner, celebrated the murders of ministers and policemen, beat their hands, applauding the tenors and basses from the student youth, who were dragging out Dubinushka. The people woke up; he found a club and hooted ... Only with one end on the landlords, generals and ministers, and on the other - on this same Russian intelligentsia, which called out so much and, finally, called the club. From an unexpected blow, the brains of the layman-intellectual turned from left to right, but that was all: the club could not change the essence, the foundations of his nature. Therefore, when he received a rifle from the white hands of General Denikin "for the salvation of Russia", he instead took up a business that was more in line with his spiritual consistency: instead of one landowner, he robbed both the landowner, and the peasants, and whoever. Instead of ministers and policemen, he killed "Kids" and unarmed "communists". And instead of a club, he secretly and clearly dreamed of how to hang all the "cadets", meaning by this name all who tried to curb his savagery.

In vain a handful of true whites struggled with this yellow stream. They could only be brought to their senses terrible disaster: she burst out. The history of the Crusades was exactly repeated. The lofty idea of ​​the liberation of the Holy Sepulcher exceeded the strength of the few true crusaders. I had to rely on wider circles, to mobilize society. The then general public consisted of the "pink", who understood courage as the right to get drunk, play dice, bandit on the highways and quarrel wildly among themselves. When they were called to a holy cause, they trampled it into the mud. Nevertheless, the crusades will forever remain in the memory of mankind, as a high impulse that originated in the moral abysses of the Middle Ages. The same bright memory will be left behind by the case of Alekseev, Kornilov, Denikin and Wrangel.

Our common mistake, if we can speak of mistakes in this case, was that we overestimated this human material with which we operated, hypnotized by examples of the extraordinary valor of real white volunteers, we attributed these qualities to all the narrow-minded people that we included in our ranks. Having mobilized this narrow-minded people, we set before them a superheroic task. It may be natural that the layman could not fulfill it. The Bolsheviks defeated us with a sense of reality. By the end of 1919, all idealization of the Bolshevik movement was over. "Paradise" was buried by the horror of the life they created, their moral character inspired only disgust. But he also inspired fear. The Bolsheviks understood this. They understood and used it with might and main, with terror and discipline they bribed the Russian inhabitant and drove him to the whites. They did not set heroic tasks, they did not demand a feat, they demanded obedience, obedience was rendered to them.

GARF. F. R-5881.
Op. 2. D. 449. L. 1 c - 1 e. Typescript with handwritten inserts.

Notes

1. For more information about Shulgin during the years of the Civil War, see: Puchenkov A.S. National policy of General Denikin (spring 1918 - spring 1920). St. Petersburg, 2012, pp. 169-180, 191-200, pp. 246-259; He is. Ukraine and Crimea in 1918 - early 1919. Essays political history. SPb., 2013. S. 22-39, S. 102-105.
2. Publication of a fragment of the memoirs of V.M. Levitsky, see: Puchenkov A.S. Ukraine and Crimea in 1918 - early 1919. pp. 238-246.
3. Shulgin V.V. "The situation is simply diabolical ..." (Diary of February 1918) / Introductory article, publication and comments by A.S. Puchenkova // Russian past. Historical and documentary almanac. 2010. Book. 11. S. 98-109.
4. GARF. F. R-5974. Op. 1. D. 15. L. 28, 79.
5. Ibid. L. 92-93.
6. Shulgin V.V. What we don't like about them: On anti-Semitism in Russia. SPb., 1992. S. 67.
7. Shulgin V.V. days. 1920: Notes. M., 1989. S. 527.
8. Ibid. S. 294.
9. Shulgin V. Dubrovskie // Great Russia (Novorossiysk). 1920. February 8.
10. Shulgin V. Russian outcome // Russian newspaper. 1924. May 7.
11. Shulgin V. On vacation // New time (Belgrade). 1924. June 28.
12. Shulgin V. "The rear lags behind the front" // Kyivian. 1919. September 1.
13. GARF. F. R-5974. Op. 1. D. 18. L. 97.
14. Ibid. L. 123.

During the filming of the film "Before the Court of History" (1964). Monarchist V. V. Shulgin in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses

The second variety of monarchists who lived in the USSR are monarchists who acted within the framework of Soviet legality. The most striking example of such a figure is Vasily Vitalievich Shulgin (1878-1976). True, before becoming "the most important Soviet monarchist," he had to serve his term in the Vladimir prison. And even then he was lucky in the sense that in 1947, when he was tried, the death penalty in the USSR had already been abolished.
But in September 1956, Shulgin was released. He by no means renounced his monarchical views, and he himself later wrote: "Having been pardoned and brought repentance, Shulgin would not have been worth a penny and could only cause contemptuous regret." But he tried to adapt his old beliefs to the new reality and, moreover, to express them openly. And the most amazing thing is that he succeeded ... With the skill and talent of an experienced parliamentary orator, Shulgin persistently pushed the ideas of monarchism and Stolypinism into legal Soviet politics and journalism. He skillfully clothed them in a very neat, censorship acceptable form. And he did it - both in his book "Letters to Russian Emigrants" published in the 60s, and in the documentary film "Before the Court of History", which was filmed about him at the same time. And in other works, including memoirs that went out of print after his death, in 1979, by the APN publishing house. Shulgin met with public figures related to him: for example, none other than Alexander Solzhenitsyn came to see him in Vladimir. Shulgin's articles appeared in Pravda, he spoke on the radio. And, finally, as the pinnacle of everything, the former ideologist of the White Guard and the author of the slogan "Fascists of all countries, unite!" In 1961 he was invited to the XXII Congress of the CPSU and participated in it as a guest.

During the filming of "Before the Court of History." Shulgin in the Tauride Palace (Leningrad), where the State Duma met until 1917. "Here it is, the Russian parliament!". Shulgin in the film took the place that he occupied in the meeting room of the former State Duma

Shulgin in the railway trailer, where he received the abdication of Emperor Nicholas II

How did he do it? I once wrote that the prohibition of expressing any views only leads to the fact that they are carefully masked with a layer of cotton candy. A more strict prohibition leads to wrapping with two, three, ten layers of cotton candy ... But the inner grain does not disappear anywhere from this, it just becomes more difficult to recognize it under the honey shell and object to it. Shulgin mastered this art to the fullest.
The Soviet director and communist Friedrich Ermler recalled his meeting with Shulgin at Lenfilm: “If I had met him in 1924, I would have done everything so that my conclusion ended with the word“ shoot. And suddenly I saw the Apostle Peter, blind, with a cane. An old man appeared before me, who looked at me for a long time, and then said: “You are very pale. You, my dear, must be protected. I am a bison, I will stand…” In other words, instead of a fierce class enemy, which Shulgin undoubtedly was ("bison" before the revolution called ardent monarchists, Black Hundreds, this expression can be found in Lenin), his Soviet opponents were surprised to find almost a saint. He was reminded of his former, by no means holy words and feelings (published, by the way, in the USSR back in the 1920s along with Shulgin's book "Days"); for example, at the sight of a revolutionary street crowd in February 1917:
"Soldiers, workers, students, intellectuals, just people ... The endless, inexhaustible stream of human water supply threw more and more new faces into the Duma ... But no matter how many there were, they all had one face: vile-animal-stupid or vile "devilishly vicious... God, how disgusting it was! So disgusting that, gritting my teeth, I felt in myself one melancholy, powerless, and therefore even more vicious fury... Machine guns - that's what I wanted. For I felt, that only the language of machine guns is accessible to the street crowd, and that only lead, lead, can drive back into its lair a terrible beast that has escaped to freedom ... Alas, this beast was ... His Majesty the Russian people ... Ah, machine guns here, machine guns! .."
And one more thing: "Nicholas I hanged five Decembrists, but if Nicholas II shoots 50,000 "Febralists", then it will be for the cheaply bought salvation of Russia."

Books by V. V. Shulgin, published in the USSR in the 1920s

Vasily Vitalyevich answered evasively and eloquently to reminders: “I said, I don’t renounce ... But you seem to deny the passage of time in this case ... How can I now, having a white beard, speak like that Shulgin, with a mustache ?. ."
Shulgin was also caustically reminded of his praises of the 1920s against the fascists, when he called Stolypin, whom he revered, "Mussolini's forerunner" and "the founder of Russian fascism." Shulgin, in response, only asked "not to confuse Italian fascism and German Nazism" ...
The film Before the Judgment of History, which became Ermler's "swan song", was difficult to shoot, filming went from 1962 to 1965. The reason was that the obstinate monarchist "showed character" and did not agree to utter a single word in the frame with which he himself would not agree. According to KGB General Philip Bobkov, who supervised the creation of the film from the department and closely communicated with the entire creative team, “Shulgin looked great on the screen and, importantly, remained himself all the time. He did not play along with his interlocutor. He was a man resigned to the circumstances, but not broken and not relinquishing his convictions. The venerable age of Shulgin did not affect either the work of thought or temperament, and did not diminish his sarcasm either. His young opponent, whom Shulgin caustically and maliciously ridiculed, looked very pale next to him. In Lenfilm's large-circulation newspaper "Kadr" an article "Meeting with the Enemy" was printed. In it, the director, People's Artist of the USSR and Ermler's friend Alexander Ivanov wrote: “The appearance on the screen of a seasoned enemy of Soviet power is impressive. The inner aristocracy of this monarchist is so convincing that you listen not only to what he says, but with tension you follow how he says ... Here he is now so decent, at times pitiful and even seemingly cute. But this man is terrible. They were followed by hundreds of thousands of people who laid down their lives for their ideas.”
As a result, the film was shown on the wide screens of Moscow and Leningrad cinemas for only three days: despite big interest viewers, it was removed from the rental ahead of schedule, and then it was rarely shown.
And with his book Letters to Russian Emigrants, Shulgin was also dissatisfied, for its lack of radicalism, and in 1970 he wrote about it like this: “I don’t like this book. There are no lies here, but there are mistakes on my part, an unsuccessful deception on the part of certain people. Therefore, the "Letters" did not reach the goal. The emigrants did not believe both what was wrong and what was stated exactly. It's a pity."

Shulgin's conversation with the old Bolshevik Petrov

The culmination of the film "Before the Judgment of History" was Shulgin's meeting with the legendary revolutionary, a member of the CPSU since 1896, Fyodor Nikolaevich Petrov (1876-1973). Meeting of an old Bolshevik and an old monarchist. On the screen, Vasily Vitalievich literally flooded his opponent with an oil of praise and compliments, thereby completely disarming him. At the end of the conversation, the softened Petrov agreed to shake hands with Shulgin on camera. And behind the scenes, Vasily Vitalievich spoke about his opponent, as befits a class enemy, maliciously and contemptuously: "In the film" Before the Court of History "I had to invent dialogues with my opponent, the Bolshevik Petrov, who turned out to be very stupid."

At the end of the conversation, Petrov agreed to shake hands with Shulgin

And Nikita Khrushchev in March 1963, in one of his speeches, spoke about Shulgin like this: “I saw people. Take, for example, Shulgin, comrades. Shulgin. Monarchist. Leader of the monarchists. And now, now he ... of course, not a communist, - and thank God that he is not a communist ... (Laughter in the audience) Because he cannot be a communist. But that he, so to speak, displays patriotism, this ... this is a fact. in America, and at that time his articles were printed there, - those who used to eat his juices spat on him. So, you know, these are such millstones that grind into flour, you know, granite. Either they wash it, or people polish it and grow stronger, and become in the ranks of good people."
By the way, the presence of Shulgin in the political life of the USSR was perceived rather disapprovingly by public opinion. This can be judged, in particular, by the well-known anecdote "What did Nikita Khrushchev do and what did not have time to do?". "I managed to invite the monarchist Shulgin as a guest at the XXII Party Congress. I did not have time to award Nicholas II and Grigory Rasputin posthumously with the Order of the October Revolution for creating a revolutionary situation in Russia." That is, the "political resurrection" of Shulgin in the 60s, and even more so the invitation of the monarchist to the congress of the Communist Party, was widely regarded by the people as a manifestation of Khrushchev's "voluntarism" (simply speaking, ridiculous tyranny). However, the film "Before the Judgment of History" was released when Khrushchev was no longer in the Kremlin, and Shulgin's memoirs "Years" appeared out of print in the late 70s.

Shulgin shows his "patriotism"

Books by V. V. Shulgin, published in the USSR in the 60s and 70s

Well, what relevant lessons can be learned from the above? First, one must know how not to be deceived by the appearance of a “saint”, which any experienced class enemy can take on. Secondly, one must be able, if necessary, to own and use this obligatory political device. And thirdly, one must understand that a legal, open, but still quite frank monarchist, like Shulgin, was still far from the most dangerous variety of monarchists in the USSR ...
The third variety of Soviet monarchists will be discussed later.

Memorial plaque erected on January 13, 2008, on the 130th anniversary of the birth of Shulgin at house number 1 on Feygin Street in Vladimir

Poster for the film "Before the Judgment of History":

Film "Before the Judgment of History"